A Week of Letter "E"

I have to say that Monkey and I just love doing preschool learning activities. I feel that the preschool lesson template I have created is working really well for us. It helps cut down on my planning time, and it helps us to learn about many subjects during the week. Here is my free preschool outline that I use to plan each week.

I hope you have fun teaching your kiddos about the letter "e"! And, here is my preschool letter "E" lesson plan that I wrote when I planned my week of "e" learning activities.

Monday - Reading

Monkey loves doing the letter of the week projects! He loves gluing, cutting, and creating a letter to hang up on the wall. This blog, Crystal & Co., has great ideas for letter of the week projects. I really loved the idea of making an eagle out of the letter "E".

After we finished making the eagle, we sat down and read books that feature the letter "E" such as My "e" Book, Horton Hatches the Egg, Green Eggs and Ham. Monkey loved the books this week because this week contained many of his favorite books! He just loves eggs and elephants.

We finished the day by learning how the letter "E" is made and what sound it makes. I taught Monkey how to make the letter "E" by using our play dough letter cards. The website, makinglearningfun.com, has a myriad of activities to teach many different subjects. Plus, they provide free printables!

Tuesday - Science

Today was a really fun day, and Monkey talked about it all day long! We used eggs and did a game of "will it sink or float". I knew how to do this activity because of my science background, but go to Science Kids for directions on how to do the floating egg experiment. I used two glass bowls that I had in the house. I filled one up with regular tap water, and the other one I placed about 9 tablespoons of salt in it before filling it up with water.

Monkey was very intrigued with what we were doing. I had him drop the egg in each bowl, and we watched what happened. He was very excited how one egg floated and the other egg sunk. I then pulled out the floating egg and placed in the the bowl with regular tap water. I did this to teach him that nothing was different about the "floating egg". Then we transferred both eggs into the salty water and observed how they floated. We concluded the activity by pouring regular water into the salty water bowl and watched as the eggs sink to the bottom.

Even though Monkey probably doesn't understand density at this point, I feel he learned about examining all angles of a problem. We will definitely revisit density again, and do even more projects with it!

We finished the day by doing the "Discovery Bag". Monkey just loves this activity. This is a bag filled with objects that start with the letter "E". I labeled each word (for example: Elephant) so Monkey will learn to connect the letter "E" with the words that start with "E". We talked about where each item can be found, and we tried to discover more "E" words around the house. I guided Monkey along this activity since he is only 2 years old. We talked about where eggs are found: in the fridge, in the store, and from the farm. 

He loved discovering what words start with the letter "E". As Monkey pulled the objects out from the bag, I made sure he said the word while I showed him how the word starts with the letter "e".

Wednesday - Math

Another day to practice counting and sorting. I wanted to do something different, and I was way excited to find the blog, The Measured Mom. She has an entire page for letter "e" math connections, and she provides free printables!

Because Monkey loves eggs, I knew he would like an activity where we could count eggs. I printed off her nests (mine aren't cute like hers since I don't have a colored printer), but the numbered nests did their jobs. I used pom pom balls as the "eggs", and I helped Monkey add the correct number of eggs to the numbered nest.

Then, I had him order the pom pom balls according to size. I wanted him to practice identifying sizes by ordering the "eggs" from smallest to biggest and biggest to smallest. He actually did pretty good at this. However, I plan on making this activity more challenging by having more than 3 to order the next time around.

Thursday - Art

Monkey is obsessed with painting. So I wanted to find a fun painting activity with an elephant. I came across this paper plate elephant project by the Crafty-Crafted. I thought it was so adorable. I changed a little bit on how it was done so it would become a painting project instead. I got one paper plate and one paper bowl. I cut the paper bowl in half so they would be the right shape for the elephant's ears. Then, I had Monkey pick out the colors he wanted to paint the elephant. While he painted, I talked to him about elephants and told him 3 facts. The facts can be found on my preschool outline.

After the paint dried, I glued the eyes and ears on the paper plate using a hot glue gun (Monkey wasn't allowed to help out on this one). I helped him make the accordion style nose, and then I helped me glue the nose on using a glue stick.

Friday - Physical Exercise

We can't wait for the weather to start getting warmer so we can do more activities outside! Because we have snow on the ground, it is hard to do some physical exercise activities. Anyways, we tried doing an elephant walk today. We did this by walking on all four limbs. I must admit that it was really comical, and Monkey thought it was hilarious to stop and quickly run to me and push me over. At least we had fun doing something different today.

Saturday - Music

As you can tell from my previous posts, we love Story Bots. These songs really work because they get stuck in your head, and I end up singing them throughout the day with Monkey. Story Bots has a really cute video about the letter "E".

Then, I taught Monkey about the instrument, euphonium. I did this by using a video that showed the instrument being played.

Sunday - Religion

Today, Monkey learned about the prophet Elijah. His story is found in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible. I read a few scriptures about Elijah, showed him a picture of Elijah from this gospel art book, and then we watched The Animated Stories From The Bible - Elijah. I talked with Monkey about the importance of following God and recognizing His power.

Want more ideas on how to teach the alphabet? Check out these posts on the following letters:
Letter A
Letter B
Letter C
Letter D